TY - JOUR T1 - Use of standardised patients for healthcare quality research in low- and middle-income countries JF - BMJ Global Health JO - BMJ Global Health DO - 10.1136/bmjgh-2019-001669 VL - 4 IS - 5 SP - e001669 AU - Ada Kwan AU - Benjamin Daniels AU - Sofi Bergkvist AU - Veena Das AU - Madhukar Pai AU - Jishnu Das Y1 - 2019/09/01 UR - http://gh.bmj.com/content/4/5/e001669.abstract N2 - The use of standardised patients (SPs)—people recruited from the local community to present the same case to multiple providers in a blinded fashion—is increasingly used to measure the quality of care in low-income and middle-income countries. Encouraged by the growing interest in the SP method, and based on our experience of conducting SP studies, we present a conceptual framework for research designs and surveys that use this methodology. We accompany the conceptual framework with specific examples, drawn from our experience with SP studies in low-income and middle-income contexts, including China, India, Kenya and South Africa, to highlight the versatility of the method and illustrate the ongoing challenges. A toolkit and manual for implementing SP studies is included as a companion piece in the online supplement. ER -